Yama · Chapter
III explained
This chapter reveals Horizon's true profession as a trafficker of women, detailing his manipulative tactics, his first sale of a sempstress into a brothel, and his subsequent career as a procurer.
What happens
This chapter reveals Horizon's true profession as a trafficker of women, detailing his manipulative tactics, his first sale of a sempstress into a brothel, and his subsequent career as a procurer. It describes his methods, his clientele, his multiple marriages and frauds, and his lack of remorse, portraying him as a cold, calculating figure who views women as commodities.
Themes in this chapter
Prostitution and Exploitation
Horizon's entire profession is the trafficking of women, treating them as goods to be bought and sold for profit.
Dehumanization and Commodification
Women are reduced to commodities; Horizon compares his trade to selling herrings or lumber, showing complete moral detachment.
Hypocrisy of Society
Horizon's high-placed clients include officials and professionals who publicly uphold morality while privately engaging in depravity.
Characters to notice
- Simon Yakovlevich Horizon
Revealed as a ruthless trafficker of women, having sold his first mistress into a brothel and built a career on exploitation.
Key passages
“He said that the police were watching him; that he could not get by the jail, and, perhaps, even hard labour and the gallows; that it was necessary for him to disappear abroad for several months.”
He claimed the police were after him, that he faced prison or execution, and that he needed to flee the country.
Horizon lies to manipulate the sempstress into agreeing to stay in a brothel.
“He regarded it just as though he were trading in herrings, lime, flour, beef or lumber.”
He saw his trade in women as no different from selling ordinary goods like fish or wood.
Highlights his complete dehumanization of women.